Variation after projection calculations for high-spin states

Abstract: In this paper, an improvement has been made on the variation after projection (VAP) method, which is crucial in the calculations of high-spin states. It turns out that, the form of the trial VAP wave function with spin $J$ can be simplified by adopting just one projected state rather than previously adopting all $(2J+1)$ angular momentum projected states for each selected reference state, $|\Phi\rangle$. The present calculations show that such simplification still minimizes the angular momentum projected energy up to a very good approximation. In this simplified VAP scheme, one can obtain almost equivalent VAP wave functions starting from different sets of the projected basis states. This clearly shows that a nuclear state can not be identified with a single intrinsic state, while in the traditional nuclear collective models, an intrinsic state is usually assigned to a well deformed rotational band.